India lodges strong protests with Pakistan, China over PoK bus service

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Salka Pai
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India lodges strong protests with Pakistan, China over PoK bus service

India lodges strong protests with Pakistan, China over PoK bus service (File Photo)

India on Wednesday said it has lodged strong protests with China and Pakistan over a proposed bus service between the two countries through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.

Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said on Wednesday the bus service will be a violation of India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

According to reports, the new bus service will be launched between Lahore in Pakistan and Kashgar in China via Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on November 13.

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Kumar said it has been India’s consistent and well-known position that the “so-called China-Pakistan ‘Boundary Agreement’ of 1963 is illegal and invalid, and has never been recognised by the Government of India.”

“Therefore, any such bus service through Pakistan Occupied Jammu & Kashmir will be a violation of India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he added.

The MEA spokesperson was responding to media queries regarding the proposed bus service.

The $50-billion CPEC, launched in 2015, is a planned network of roads, railways and energy projects linking China’s resource-rich Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region with Pakistan’s strategic Gwadar Port on the Arabian Sea.

MEA PoK bus service Pak-China CPEC project Boundary Agreement Pak-Indo ties